This is probably a dumb question but can I cook fish in the same cast iron skillet that I use for beef, etc? I don't see why not, but for some reason I thought someone told me one time not to make fish in a cast iron that was used for beef because the skillet picks up the flavors and you'll end up with beef flavored fish or vice versa. I tried googling it, but all I'm finding it not to cook fruit/veggies in the same skillet as meat b/c of the flavoring. Thanks.
I guess this is a good place to ask. So, I am redoing my kitchen, including the appliances. I currently have a really really shitty electric range. I am considering either checking on getting a gas line put in (shouldn't be too difficult as the laundry room is right behind it), or going with an induction range. I haven't cooked on either, so I am sure there are pros and cons to each. Do you mind sharing your experiences?
I have a gas stove now and it is mediocre. This is because there is a fan in my kitchen and I have to keep it off or the gas stove on low will go out and just spew gas. I think my stove just sucks in general, the flame wavers a lot. Alternately, my best friend's house has a really nice kitchen with a gas stove. The part where the flame comes out is actually sunken down and the metal part that covers it is even with the surface of the stove. That stove is much better. The flame is more stable and it doesn't ever waver because it in sunken to just below the surface of the stove. I've cooked on that one plenty of times and it is very good.
Due to the configuration of my dad's kitchen, we had to get a downdraft stovetop. He insisted on gas, which meant (due to our supplier) we had to go with JennAir. In other words, top of the fucking line. That stovetop SUCKS. Only one burner gets hot enough to boil water in a pot without a lid. In my limited experience, it's electric all the way. Might take longer to heat up, but at least it heats up.
Oh Dcc, that's one thing I forgot to mention. It takes like 8 minutes for mine to boil water WITH the lid on...
Induction is the shit IF you can go with separate appliances. IE: cooktop and oven instead of a range. Induction is extremely energy efficient and is fast as blazes BUT it pulls a lot of amperage. A standard house electrical system will not be able to supply enough amperage to give adequate performance if you have the oven on and you're using some of the burners. But if you can separate the two, then each appliance is on its own breaker and you'll have much better performance. With gas, there are multitudes of cooktops/ranges that have plenty of power (BTU's) to boil water, sear meats, stir fry etc if you choose to go that route. See what their simmer capabilities are (if that's important to you). If you decide to go that way, let me know and I'll tell you which brands are good. What is your budget? That determines a lot, especially with induction appliances. Sorry DCC, but Jenn-air is just "meh". It's just Whirlpools higher end line.* How old is your Dad's cooktop? The highest BTU burner of some older downdrafts was about 10,500BTU's. A decent burner these days will have 15k, most are around 18k and some nutty brands will give you 25k! *Whirlpool owns Jenn-Air, Kitchen-Aid, Amana, Maytag, Roper and a bunch of brands you've probably never heard of.
My budget isn't as high as my wishes unfortunately. I was planning on getting a range simply because that is all that I have ever had. But if it makes more sense then we could split them out. How do you know if your current electrical can support an induction range. We are in process of pricing out cabinets and have a couple different places working on coming up with designs so we'd have to decide pretty quickly if we did go this route so they could factor that in. I'll be honest though, I would likely spring for a pretty kick ass induction cooktop and then get a ghetto budget wall oven. I was looking at the Electrolux or GE Profile ranges, so I guess my budget seems to be between $2500 and $3000 for induction. I would hope to spend much less for gas since I will probably have to pay a plumber close to a $1000 just to bring in a gas line. Or I could just stick with electric and save all of that money and continue to be the same shitty cook that I am today.
We redid our kitchen a few years ago. We went with a Viking cooktop and a Thermador double wall oven with convection feature, and a Bosch dishwasher and we're very pleased with all of them. I think if our kitchen wasn't designed for a wall oven though, we would have gone with a Viking range. For the sink, checkout the Blanco line of Silgranit sinks. You can't scratch, nick, chip or stain it. We chose the Diamond model which is one big bowl (split bowls suck when you're trying to scrub a roasting pan or other large cooking item). We put a Grohe faucet on it which is nice, but overpriced. Everybody makes a gooseneck with a pullout head these days.
Unfortunately Viking isn't in our budget. Sounds like you did things right! That would be my dream! We are going to get the Fisher Paykel dish drawers because I like the idea of the draws, a Samsung counter depth French door refrigerator but the other decisions are kind of up in the air still. I selected a sink, but it is a split bowl. Since that is what I have always used, just a bit wary of doing the single bowl thing. I like the Kohler apron front stainless steel at this moment.
If you going to drop $3000 on the cooktop, get the Miele. Hands down, no question. The better brands (Miele, Wolf, Thermador) have more power generators and therefore better performance when using multiple burners. Cheaper brands (Kitchen-aid, Electrolux, GE etc) only have one generator so if you have one burner on High, then turn another burner on High, the first burners output get reduced. With the Miele 36", you can have three burners on High with 100% power. Not to mention the quality differences between the mid-line and high end. If its going to cost a grand just to bring in the gas, stick with the induction. I also second the Blanco Silgranite. Sinks are damn near indestructible. The Fisher Paykel drawers aren't bad, depending on what you're looking for. If you tend to wash big things, you will find they don't hold as much as you think they will. Water use is ok, noise level is ok. Personally, if I was going to drop $1200 on a dishwasher, I'd go Miele. That's what I have and NO one will last as long. Like, not even close to what a Miele will last. (No, I don't work for Miele) Since I often get asked how well dishwashers clean (I sell appliances if you haven't gathered that yet) I snapped a pic of before and after of a casserole dish washed in my Miele dishwasher. It went in looking like this: Came out like this:
The Fisher Paykel drawers are $1030, which is already slightly more than I had expected to pay for a dishwasher. I have heard great things about Mieles, but that is a bit too far over the budget. The cheapest I have found is right around $1300. I looked at the drawers and they seem sufficient for a two person family (probably will only run one about 90% of the time), we handwash pots and pans and have the occasional casserole dish, but I don't think the size will be an issue. My biggest hope is that it is reliable. How about the Samsung for a fridge? Important things to us are counter depth and french door (my husband is really excited about the potential to hold his frozen pizzas). I would also like water/ice in the door. Once again, it is a bit over our original budget but that just seems to be the case on pretty much everything we are looking at. OK - now on to the cooktop/oven. I think you misunderstood, my budget for both would be $3000, so that makes the Miele cooktops a bit too pricey. I think that all I can easily fit is a 30" too. What do you recommend within those parameters? Also, any chance of any awesome deals, rebates, or sales coming down in the next month or two?
Mya, you might want to check with your gas company. Down here in Marco is., FL almost everything is electric and it SUCKS. I talked to the gas company that I use for our restaurant and the tech said they would run a line for my house and install a tank for free. He also told me that they only charge a minimal fee to someone who isn't already a customer. He explained that the company just wants to sell you gas and couldn't care less about the install cost as long as you were going to be their customer. PM me if you want the name of the gas company I use, they're national.
Hmmmm The Drawers must be less in your area. You should get 10-12 years of pretty trouble free service out of them, so above average for sure. Samsung has a really good temp management system. Get one with the "Twin Cooling" It operates similar to a Sub Zero and will prolong the life of your food in the fridge. Most units pull air from the freezer to cool the fridge side, but that also lowers the humidity in the fridge, drying out your food. I'd expect an 8-10 year life span on average. It's going to be a push to get both items for $3000. What are your oven cooking habits? Will you often use more then one stove top burner on High at a time? Some brands like Bosch are very rebate happy and often have package deals where you can save 10-15% if you get a certain amount of Bosch pieces. Unfortunately appliances are a low margin business and there isn't a lot of room to move on the price or some brands plain won't let you.
Slappy - I actually already have gas to the house, my heat is gas. I just don't have it run to my behind my range. That figure was ballpark on how much it cost my neighbor to do the same thing. He had to get a permit and the whole thing. Just seems like a lot of work when I was tossing around the idea of induction instead of gas anyway. GTE - I very rarely use my oven honestly, I roast veggies in there, my husband cooks pizzas, occasionally will make lasagna. I would say that it even gets turned on maybe once ever week or two. I use my cooktop a lot, but typically only will have one burner on high at a time, if I have a couple going usually one will be simmering or something. I really don't need top of the line, I am hardly gourmet, but I would like something reliable. With all that said, and taking into account the price and budgetary constraints, what is a good mid-range compromise. Even a range would be fine. There is a GE Profile Induction Range that is slightly over $2,000 that I am strongly considering.
Now that it's the holiday season - it's cookie making time. I made these for a retirement party & they were requested for my work's holiday party tomorrow. They are easy and really good, but it's like eating 3 or 4 cookies at once. I want to stick a mini nutter butter in the middle of the Oreo and really make it an Inception cookie. Cookie within a cookie (aka Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie): Ingredients 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips – you may add more, I just prefer less chocolate chips 1/2 package of Oreo Cookies Directions: Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat; set aside. With your electric mixer, cream together the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined. Add in eggs, one at a time and then vanilla- mix until well combined. In a separate bowl mix your flour, salt and baking soda. Slowly add your dry ingredient to the wet. Add chocolate chips (I used mini, but feel free to use any type of chip you’d like) – mix together. Careful not to over mix though. Using an ice cream scoop (or your hands) take one scoop of cookie dough and place on top of an Oreo Cookie. Take another scoop of dough and place on bottom of Oreo Cookie. Carefully roll into a ball with your hands until the Oreo Cookie is completely enclosed. Place the cookies on your prepared baking sheet and bake for 9-13 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before you transfer to the cooling rack. Once it’s cool enough, serve warm (& probably with a glass of milk) and enjoy! Makes approximately two dozen (large) cookies.
Vegan Black Metal Chef What. The. Fuck. I'm watching the Anthony Bourdain Holiday Special, which is a weird tale of self-pity and good food, and there's a minute or two of a made up series called Vegan Black Metal Chef. At least I thought it was made up. I thought I'd Google for a video clip to post here to make fun of it, only to find out IT'S A REAL FUCKING SHOW. Kill me now.
I had the chance to go to Brazillian Steakhouse Fogo De Chao tonight and opted out. I love being an omnivore, but the novelty of feasting on all-you-can-eat red meat has worn off. The meat sweats are gross.
Wait, you mean THAT SHIT'S REAL? Unbelievable. I figured Bourdain's production crew paid some shitty local NYC death metal band to make that segment. It would have been fitting, considering how bad the rest of the episode was. It seems that most of the themed episodes (last year's Christmas episode, the black and white episode in Rome, etc.) all fail on some level. That being said, I am really digging The Layover. More on topic, does anyone have tips on cooking in cast iron on an electric burner element? I bought a new pre-seasoned Lodge Logic pan yesterday. I followed the directions that came with the pan (wash with hot water, wipe dry, apply a thin coast of oil, heat and cook) and still ended up smoking up my apartment to the point where I was honestly concerned the fire department was going to be called. It pissed me off because I ended up having to throw away a killer ribeye from a local butcher shop. I purposely used peanut oil, which has a high smoke point, to prevent a smoke fest. After doing a bit of reading it seems some people stated cast iron can't be used on high heat on an electric stove without smoking, but I don't see why the type of stove would matter? Heat is heat, right? Was the smoke just due to the fact that the pan is new, or did I just waste $20 on a pan that will cause three alarm fires every time it's put on high heat?
There are a few things you might try to cut down on the smoke. 1. If you are just searing a steak, you don't need oil in the pan. Actually, for almost all things being cooked in a cast iron skillet, you don't need additional oil in the pan. If you want to add some oil to the steaks, brush it on before hand. If you do put oil in the pan, put it in a cold pan and heat it up gradually. 2. Cast iron pans hold heat EXTREMELY well. You don't really need to turn your electric burner on high heat. Medium heat will do just fine in searing a steak. Don't forget you basically have a giant piece of metal sitting on your stove. It's not like those shitty nonstick pans that don't hold any heat. 3. Peanut oil, while having a high smoke point, will smoke with a cast iron pan. The pan just gets too hot. Try grapeseed oil instead. 4. Pepper has a bad habit of smoking in a cast iron pan. It just burns too quickly. If you season your steaks with pepper, you are going to run into this problem more often than not. 5. If you are that worried about it smoking, quickly sear both sides of the steak and finish it off in the oven. Not the most desired way to cook, but it's better than filling your place with smoke all the time.